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Paramount Animation
This article is about the Paramount animation studio that controls both the Los Angeles and Burbank studios. For the main in-house animation division of Paramount Pictures, see Paramount Animation (feature animation department). For the television animation division of Paramount, see Paramount Television Animation. Paramount Animation 'is the animation studio division of Paramount Pictures. Founded on July 27, 1967, the studio creates animated feature films, short films, and television programs for Paramount Pictures, and currently maintains its main feature animation studio in Hollywood, California, which produces a total of 51 feature films, as of as well as a satellite studio in Burbank and Los Angeles, which produces animated television series, direct-to-video and occasional theatrical animated feature films. The studio was originally formed as '''Paramount Animation Studios '''in 1967 by some of Paramount's former animation branch Famous Studios alumni, as well as some of the staff from Walt Disney Productions, while '''ParamountToons Studios '''was formed to produce television series and direct-to-video films in 1981. Paramount also hires Amblin Entertainment former animation branch Amblimation alumni and Turner Entertainment former animation branch Turner Feature Animation alumni to work at its animation division in 1996, as old Paramount staffs passed on from their lives and retired. Since 1973, Paramount Animation has primarily focused upon the production of television and feature animation of other properties, notably including those related to its Famous Studios and Terrytoons in-name-only unit, television series produced by Nickelodeon, such as ''Rugrats, SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Loud House since 1991. Paramount Animation continues to produce films using both traditional animation and computer-generated imagery (CGI). Background Before it came around, Paramount Cartoon Studios first started off with the Fleischer brothers. Fleischer Studios was built on Max Fleischer's novelty film series, Out of the Inkwell (1919-1927). The "novelty" was based largely on the results of the "Rotoscope", invented by Fleischer to produce realistic animation. The first "Out of the Inkwell" films were produced through the Bray Studio, and featured Fleischer's first character, "The Clown," which became known as Ko-Ko the Clown in 1924. In 1921, The Bray Studio ran afoul with legal issues, having contracted for more films than it could deliver to its distributor, The Goldwyn Company. The Fleischer Brothers left and began their own studio with Dave as Director and Production Supervisor, and Max as Producer. In 1924, Veteran Animator, Dick Huemer came to The Inkwell Studio and redesigned "The Clown" for more efficient animation. Huemer's new design and experience as an Animator moved them away from their dependency on The Rotoscope for fluid animation. In addition to defining the clown, Huemer established the Fleischer style with its distinctive thick and thin ink lines. In addition, Huemer created Ko-Ko's companion, Fitz the Dog, who would evolve into Bimbo in 1930. Throughout the 1920s, Fleischer was one of the leading producers of animation with clever moments and numerous innovations including the "Rotograph", an early "Aerial Image" photographic process for compositing animation with live action backgrounds. Other innovations included Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes and sing-along shorts (featuring the famous "bouncing ball"), a precursor to Karaoke. During the 1930s and early 1940s, Fleischer begun working on Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman. After Fleischer Studios dissolved into Famous Studios after founder Fleischer's dismayal, the Popeye and Superman''series continued on with another series like ''Noveltoons, Little Lulu, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip, Buzzy the Crow, Little Audrey, Beetle Bailey, Snuffy Smith, Krazy Kat and Screen Songs. By 1967, the Paramount animation studio was closed down after the Fractured Fable, Mouse Trek was completed for a release on December. History 1967–69: Founding In early 1967, Kenny & Kella Young Productions employees, George Burke and Lana Ponce, met with Paramount Pictures and its former parent Gulf and Western Industries to discuss the creation of a feature animation division, an offer which Burke and Ponce immediately accepted. Paramount Animation Studios was officially established on July 27, 1967, to produce theatrically released animated feature films to rival Disney's animated features. Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg was brought in to head the new division, which was set up in a building on the Paramount Pictures studios lot. To build the talent base, Burke brought over artists from Kenny & Kella Young Productions, while Paramount brought over some of the staff from Walt Disney Productions. Some of Paramount Cartoon Studios' artists came to Paramount Animation Studios in fall 1967 after Paramount Cartoon Studios (it was formerly Famous Studios until 1956) was shut down by Paramount's new owners, Gulf+Western and was merged into PAS. 1970–1985: Initial success The first of Paramount's animated features was World of Wonderland (1970). World of Wonderland ''received positive reviews from critics and was a success at the box office. Animation production for ''World of Wonderland ''was primarily done at the new Paramount feature animation studio, although much of the work was outsourced to animation studios around the world. After the released of ''World of Wonderland in 1970, Paramount signed a co-production deal with Hanna-Barbera to co-produce and distribute ''Charlotte's Web ''(1973). Meanwhile, '''ParamountToons Studios opened its doors in 1981 to produce television series and direct-to-video films for Paramount. That same year, the studio produced its very first production, which is an animated television series based on Noveltoons airing on CBS from 1981 to 1983. In 1984, Michael Eisner left Paramount and became CEO of The Walt Disney Company, along with Jeffrey Katzenberg become chairman of the company. Coming soon! 1986–2002: The rise of Paramount Feature Animation In 1986, Paramount Animation Studios was renamed into Paramount Feature Animation. In December 1990, it was reported that Paramount Feature Animation would make a partnership with Amblimation on few animated feature films, such as Little Orphan Annie, Princess and Prince Adventures, and Natalia's Story. In 1994, After the release of Princess and Prince Adventures, George Burke and Lana Ponce has come to their retirement. On July 7, 1994, Paramount Communications Inc. was sold to Viacom following the purchase of 50.1% of Paramount's shares for $9.75 billion. After Viacom acquisition of Paramount Pictures, ParamountToons Studios would co-produced some Nicktoons shows, such as Rugrats and Hey Arnold! and Paramount created a new division named MountDark Animation, which typically produces animated films and television shows targeted to adult audiences, such as Beavis and Butt-Head, Duckman, South Park, and Animal Frenzy. At the time when Nickelodeon Movies was founded in 1995, ParamountToons Studios signed a co-production deal with Nickelodeon to co-produce The Rugrats Movie (1998), which was already in pre-production. According to Julie Young, the film is not considered by the studio to be part of the Paramount Animated Features canon, as it was produced between Paramount Burbank studio and Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Some of Amblimation and Turner Feature Animation's artists came to Paramount Feature Animation in 1996, when Amblimation's closure in 1997 after Natalia's Story was completed, with the rest with DreamWorks, and Turner Feature Animation's last feature was completed and the merger with Turner and Time Warner, with the rest doing so following the studio merged with its feature animation rival, Warner Bros. Feature Animation. Coming soon! 2003–10: Conversion to computer animation Upon the unsuccessful release of Thieves and Kings, Paramount laid off most of the employees at the Feature Animation studio in Hollywood, downsizing it to one unit and beginning plans to move into fully computer animated films. A handful of employees were offered positions doing computer animation. Subsequently, after the release of The Wanderer, Paramount Feature Animation officially announced they were becoming a fully CGI studio, now with a staff of 460 people and began selling off all of its traditional animation equipment. In 2004, Paramount released its first fully in-house computer-animated feature film Twin, Duo, and Two to critical and commercial success. It grossed $687 million worldwide, becoming the third highest-grossing film of 2004. Twin, Duo, and Two established Paramount as the fourth studio after Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, and Blue Sky Studios to have launched a successful CGI franchise. Ever since the release of Twin, Duo, and Two, Paramount Animation continues to produce successful CGI-animated feature films. These films included Mission Planet (2005), Circus Bears (2006), Dr. Seuss' Daisy-Head Mayzie (2006), Twin, Duo, and Double (2007), The Adventures to the Treasure Island (2007), Candy Quest (2008), Virtual Journey (2009), and Twin, Duo, and Three (2010) In 2006, Paramount Pictures became the primary distributor of animated features produced by DreamWorks Animation, many of which, such as Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon, were notable critical and financial successes. After the split of Viacom and CBS and the released of Circus Bear, Paramount renamed its Feature Animation unit and the Burbank studio from Paramount Feature Animation and ParamountToons Studios to Paramount Animation, and merged its direct-to-video and television animation units with the feature animation. In May 2006, Paramount opened a new television production unit called Paramount Television Animation. This new unit would produce both traditionally-animated and computer-generated television series, beginning with the fourth season of SpongeBob SqaurePants. Coming soon! 2011–present: Further expansion and Paramount Animation today In July 2011, in the wake of critical and box office success of their animated features, Rango and The Flamingo Prince, heavy fan demand about bring back hand-drawn animation, and the departure of DreamWorks Animation upon completion of their distribution contract in 2012, Paramount Animation announced that it decided focus on both hand-drawn animation and CGI animation, and Paramount extended its animation production unit at Los Angeles, devoted to the creation of animated productions. In October 2011, Paramount named a former president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, David Stainton, president of Paramount Animation. In February 2012, Stainton resigned for personal reasons, with Paramount Film Group's president, Adam Goodman, stepping in to directly oversee the studio. It was also announced that The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, a standalone sequel to 2004's The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and based upon the popular Nickelodeon TV show, SpongeBob SquarePants, is Paramount Los Angeles studio's first film and was released on February 6, 2015 In August 2012, in the same month that DreamWorks Animation confirmed that it will be working with 20th Century Fox as distributor beginning in 2013, Variety reported that Paramount Animation was in the process of starting development of several animated films with budgets of around US$100 million. On May 6, 2014, after the released of Puffy, Paramount announced that Burbank studio will shut down on July 31, 2014, resulting in a layoff of 75 animators and staff. On June 3, 2015, Hulu (owned by Disney with NBCUniversal as a silent partner) announced its first-ever license deal with Paramount Animation, becoming the exclusive streaming home for future Paramount animated feature films, as well as library films. On May 2016, Paramount Pictures announced that they had signed a deal with UK-based Locksmith Animation to co-develop and co-produce a series of animated projects to be released under the Paramount Animation label (with animation produced by Double Negative). The following year, however, Paramount ended its deal with Locksmith when Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey was replaced by Jim Gianopulos, who decided that their projects did not fit in with Paramount’s other upcoming releases. Locksmith formed a multi-year production deal with 20th Century Fox four months later. In July 2017, Paramount Pictures named former DreamWorks Animation co-president Mireille Soria as the president of the studio in Hollywood and Los Angeles. In April 2018, Paramount Pictures named former Blue Sky Studios and Nickelodeon Movies producer Ramsey Naito as the executive vice president of the studio in Hollywood and Los Angeles. In May 2019, Paramount Animation launched its ParamountTV channel, operated by AwesomenessTV, which would feature shorts and original series (including content based on Paramount franchises such as Puffy), as well as previews and behind-the-scenes content related to its upcoming films. In September 2019, Paramount Animation introduced its new logo for both Hollywood and Los Angeles and new mascot, a tween girl named Star Skipper, replacing Friendly from Friendly from Friendly Fox. In November 2019, Paramount announced that they would release the films for Remaster Multiverse as part of the Paramount Stars stream. Locations Hollywood Main article: Paramount Animation (feature animation department) Coming soon! Burbank Main article: Paramount Animation (Burbank) Coming soon! Los Angeles Main article: Paramount Animation (Los Angeles) Studio partnerships Hanna-Barbera Coming soon! Amblin Entertainment Coming soon! JeremyWorks Studios Coming soon! Nickelodeon Coming soon! DreamWorks Animation Coming soon! Sega Coming soon! Logo Initially, Paramount Animation never had an on-screen logo for their first fourteen features. They just used the standard Paramount Pictures logo. Beginning with the release of Little Helpers To the Rescue in 1990, Paramount Feature Animation introduced its silhouette mountain logo. The logo was created by Paramount Feature Animation itself in traditional animation and featured a silhouette Paramount mountain against a black background. For ParamountToons Studios logo, the logo feature Friendly from Friendly Fox ''in the red circle and writing the logo. ParamountToons Studios logo appears in direct-to-video films, TV shows and specials. This logo was seen after all films until 2006, when it was updated with the release of ''Dr. Seuss' Daisy-Head Mayzie since Paramount Feature Animation was renamed into Paramount Animation. Designed by Julie Young, the modernized logo, featuring the print blocks of the Paramount text. In January 2014, another new logo and opening were introduced for the Paramount Animation Hollywood logo. The new opening begins after Paramount Pictures 2012 logo finish where a white background page turns with the Paramount logo appears, and below the logo, the word "ANIMATION" appears. It was first seen in front of Puffy and last seen in front of Puffy's Big Break. In September 2019, Paramount Animation introduced a new animated logo featuring a character nicknamed Star Skipper. When Mireille Soria came to Paramount Animation, one of the first goals set by Jim Gianopulos was to make a new logo for the division. The crew wanted to put a female character in the logo because the studio’s team is mostly female, and according to Soria, it captures “the magic” of the division. The logo and the character of Star Skipper was designed by Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie lead visual development artist and art director Christopher Zibach and animated in-house at Paramount Animation's headquarters in Hollywood, along with ATK PLN and Reel FX Creative Studios. This logo made its debut in front of Twin, Duo, and Forever on November 27, 2019. Filmography Main article: List of Paramount Animation productions Franchises Gallery Coming soon! Trivia * Friendly from ''Friendly Fox ''is sometimes considered to be a mascot of Paramount Animation, until 2019, he was replaced by Star Skipper. * A trio of comic relief characters named Crawler (a crow), Liger (a cat), and Ratty (a rat) appear in several Paramount Animation film, as henchmen for the main antagonists. See also * List of unproduced Paramount Pictures animated projects * DreamWorks Animation * Nickelodeon Movies * Nickelodeon Animation Studios * MountDark Animation * Paramount Digital Entertainment Category:Company Category:Paramount Animation Category:Viacom Category:Paramount Pictures